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FRANCHISE RESALES

Buy a PJ’s Coffee Franchise

PJ’s Coffee of New Orleans is a Southern-rooted coffee shop franchise founded in 1978 by Phyllis Jordan, an early champion of better beans and small-batch roasting. The brand is built around New Orleans heritage, hand-crafted espresso drinks, cold brew and signature beignets served in warm, neighbourhood-style cafés. Since 2008 it has been owned by the Ballard family, who formed Ballard Brands in 2012 as the parent company and grew the concept well beyond Louisiana.

The model is a territory-based, bricks-and-mortar coffee shop offered in several formats, including traditional cafés, drive-thru units and smaller non-traditional sites. PJ’s roasts its own Arabica beans at a New Orleans facility and supplies franchisees through a vertically integrated distribution system, keeping product fresh and consistent across the network.

PJ’s operates roughly 190 locations with several hundred more in development, giving it an established Gulf South base and a growing national footprint. It positions itself on quality coffee and genuine hospitality rather than scale alone, competing in a crowded café market through its regional identity.

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Why buy a PJ’s Coffee Franchise?

Buying a PJ’s Coffee franchise gives an owner a recognised regional coffee brand with more than four decades of history and a clear point of difference in a crowded category. The New Orleans story, in-house roasting and signature beignets set PJ’s apart from generic café concepts and give franchisees a distinctive product and identity to market locally.

The vertically integrated supply model is a practical strength: franchisees source roasted Arabica coffee directly from the company’s New Orleans facility, supported by purchasing co-ops and distribution partnerships that help manage a core cost line. Several store formats — full cafés, drive-thru and smaller non-traditional sites — let owners match the model to different real-estate opportunities. Coffee remains a daily-habit purchase that has stayed resilient across economic cycles, supporting repeat traffic.

PJ’s Coffee Franchise Costs & Information

Based on 2024 data reported in the 2025 FDD

  • Brand Profile

    • Year Founded

      1978

    • Franchising Since

      1989

    • New Startup Cost

      $262,500 – $1,698,000

    • Avg. Resale Price

      Contact us for details

  • Franchise Fees

    • Initial franchise Fee

      $15,000 – $40,000

      for new territories

    • Transfer Fee

      $15,000

    • Royalty Fee

      5%

      of Net Sales

    • Marketing Fee

      2%

      of Net Sales

  • Unit Performance

    • Total Units *

      182

    • New Units Opened *

      22

    • Units Transferred *

      18

    • Avg. Unit revenue *

      $589,674

    * Based on 2024 data reported in the 2025 FDD

PJ’s Coffee – Additional  Information

  1. Training & Support

    PJ's runs a multi-level program combining online modules, classroom instruction and on-site hands-on training, with roughly 50-120 hours on the job and 50-80 hours in the classroom; staff onboarding runs through the World Manager platform. Owners receive year-round operational consulting, ongoing P&L analysis, marketing campaigns, proprietary software, a franchisee intranet and field support, plus fresh roasted coffee from the New Orleans facility. Buyers of an existing PJ's should confirm what transfer training and World Manager access the franchisor gives incoming owners and inherited staff.

  2. Ideal Owner

    PJ's suits hands-on, community-minded operators who enjoy hospitality and building a local gathering place rather than passive investors. The business is operations- and people-led: owners manage baristas, hold service and quality standards, control labour and food costs, and drive local marketing and repeat traffic. No coffee or food-service background is required given the structured training, but comfort recruiting and leading hourly teams to tight standards matters. Multi-unit and semi-absentee growth is possible for owners who can build reliable store-level management.

  3. Recognition & Awards

    PJ's Coffee earns consistent national recognition, ranking annually in the Entrepreneur Franchise 500 (most recently in 2026) and appearing on Entrepreneur's Top Brand for Multi-Unit Owners (2024) and Top Franchises for Veterans (2025) lists. It won a Franchise Innovation Award in 2025, made Franchise Business Review's Top Franchise for Culture in 2024 and FranServe's Fran-Tastic Brands in 2024, and has earlier ranked among the top coffee franchises. PJ's is an IFA and VetFran member. Resale buyers should weigh brand-level recognition alongside the specific unit's local reviews and reputation.

  4. Industry / Market

    Coffee is one of the most resilient consumer categories in the US, where roughly two-thirds of adults drink it daily and it remains the nation's most popular beverage. The US coffee shop market is worth well over $45 billion and continues to grow, supported by demand for specialty and premium coffee, on-the-go and drive-thru convenience, and strong adoption among younger millennial and Gen Z consumers. Daily-habit purchasing gives the category recurring traffic that holds up across cycles, though resale buyers should weigh local competition in the specific territory.

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